Month in Review: November ’18

To encourage a bit more variety in my blogging posts and to help distance this site from the one of old, I’m installing this monthly post where I summarize the previous month’s activity in a wraparound that will hopefully give people the chance to go back and find stuff they might have missed, as well as keep them apprised of any changes or news that happened that month.

the cast of Thanksgiving Day 2018

With Thanksgiving behind us, let us also hope the cinematic turkeys are too. As we head down the final stretch of 2018, I plan to resume a steadier pace — no promises, but that is the goal. That shouldn’t be too much to ask given the slate of films that sprawls out in front of us. Here’s a brief rundown of what I am most feverishly anticipating, loosely organized based upon what it is that draws me to them.

Director(s)

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster); If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, Moonlight); Climax (shield your eyes, kiddies — it’s the new film from the polarizing Argentine Gaspar Noé)

Cast(s)/Character(s)

The Beach Bum (Matthew McConaughey as “Moondog” — watch out 2019, ‘Moondog McConaughey’ is totally gonna be a thing); Vice (Christian Bale as former Vice President Dick Cheney, Sam Rockwell as Dubya, and Steve Carell as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — that is just ridiculous casting, all of it!); Serenity (Matthew McConaugh — hey, I see a pattern emerging, plus Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou and Diane Lane)

Story

Welcome to Marwen (from the director of Forrest Gump, starring Steve Carell) — Mark Hogancamp, a victim of an attack so brutal he loses most of his memories of his life before, constructs a miniature World War II village, called Marwen, in his yard to help in his recovery; Vox Lux (read Cinema Axis’ early review here) — An unusual set of circumstances brings unexpected success to a pop star; Mary Queen of Scots — pits the mighty Saoirse Ronan against the equally powerful Margot Robbie, as Mary Stuart (Ronan)’s attempt to overthrow her cousin Elizabeth I (Robbie), Queen of England, finds her condemned to years of imprisonment before facing execution.

That’s 10 titles, a list to which I could add twice as many but I’ll stop there. Suffice it to say, I think the next coming weeks are going to be very exciting. With that established, here is what has been going on on Thomas J this past month.

Maybe old news now, but whatever happened to the remade Suspiria? There was serious buzz about it in the months leading up to it, and then that just . . . fizzled out. The film never entered my area. The few reviews I did read were rather negative. Here’s CC Pop Culture’s take on this (apparently unwanted) retread.

Jordan of the one and only Epileptic Moondancer has an interesting review of a new Robert Redford flick that I truly wanted to see, but missed out on. Check out this hot take on The Old Man and the Gun. Shots fired! 😉

In my lamenting-of-bad-weather post (Avery), I said I was going to throw up a review of Nic Cage in the insane revenge thriller Mandy. Well, that hasn’t happened yet. To tide you over, here’s what The Ghost of 82 had to say about it. (This is a thoughtful review that only makes me more annoyed I haven’t gotten around to it yet.)

What films are you most looking forward to in the coming weeks/months?

I am super excited for The Favourite, I am soooooo out of the loop, I only realised it was coming out a coupla weeks ago. I think you know how much I love Yorgos, and his last film was sooooooooo good. Looks like a big change of pace for him, can’t wait for it. Same with Climax, can’t wait to see that. Sounds like a psychedelic nightmare, which was what Mandy was like. Really keen to hear your thoughts on that, I’m in the process of writing what I thought of it. Cage was so good. Can’t wait to see Gaspar’s take on a similar type of movie.

The Mule looks interesting too, hopefully Clint can bounce back from that terrible film he did early this year. Vice will be good I think but it won’t be here till Feb, like The Mule. And they wonder why people download movies….

Can’t say I’m looking forward to Jenkin’s movie, I thought Moonlight was good, but good god was it overrated. I’ll probably download it to check it out. If its an oscar bait movie a screener should end up online,

The other movies you listed look really interesting! Thanks for the heads up, like I said I’m never aware of whats coming up. For the most part… I am really looking forward to Green Book, you heard about that one? One of the few films I watched the trailer for.. Viggo is my man-crush =P And he plays an Italian-american! That dude can do anything

Ah yes, I keep forgetting about The Mule. Clint Eastwood looks like he’s bringing another heavy-hitter. Yeah, I never saw that 15:17 to Paris. My dad caught it on a flight actually, said it bored the crap out of him haha!

Green Book I still haven’t seen either. It is playing at a theater about 30 mins from me, I just haven’t been able to coax myself into driving down there to see it. I must be getting old. Laziness is really starting to set in. . .